COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Which is Harder: Who to Believe or What to Believe?

The Obama Admin Declared War On Trump. Trump Just Responded With His Own Declaration

President Trump has escalated the controversy over alleged Russian interference in the campaign into a political war between the current and former presidents.



President Trump labeled ex-President Obama a “bad or sick guy” in a tweet on Saturday, accusing Obama of tapping his phones during the presidential campaign. Through a spokesman, Obama denied any direct involvement in ordering surveillance on Trump, his associates, or his campaign.

By denouncing Obama in such an explosive and public manner, Trump has escalated the controversy over alleged Russian interference in the campaign into a political war between the current and former presidents. The move is Trump’s boldest play yet, the equivalent of poker’s all-in re-raise against Democrat allegations of Russian collusion. While almost all of official Washington is shocked by Trump’s gamble, there is strong reason to believe he holds the winning hand.

Details related to electronic eavesdropping approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) are classified, but press reports make clear that an application for surveillance at Trump Tower in Manhattan was approved in October of last year. Obama associates deny he ordered the wiretap, but pointedly do not deny its existence.

The mainstream media has seized upon the FISA-approval process to refute Trump’s allegation, stating that the president does not approve FISA applications and therefore that Trump is not only wrong, but stupid and ignorant. This conveniently ignores the fact that the previous attorney general, Loretta Lynch, could have ordered the surveillance either at Obama’s explicit direction, or, more likely, with his tacit approval.

The press, as members of the opposition party, have repeated that there is no evidence to support Obama’s involvement. In any case, the distinction between Obama and his administration is ultimately a false one, unless Obama is willing to explicitly repudiate the actions of his subordinates. FBI Director James Comey has requested that the Justice Department (DOJ) issue a statement denying Obama ordered the tapping of Trump’s phones, but such a statement would only confirm the obvious fact that Obama is not on record as doing so himself.


Why It’s Likely Team Obama Is Firing Blanks


A major problem in sorting facts from conjecture is the secretive nature of the FISA proceedings, so most if not all of the facts are based on leaks; however, we do know that the FBI and DOJ would have to have presented a formal affidavit for surveillance to the court for it to be legal. A previous application to the court was made in June, and named Trump in some capacity, but was rejected. To illustrate how rare is a FISA court rejection, consider that during the six years between 2009 and 2015, only one request was rejected out of more than 10,000.

The affidavit written by the FBI requested authorization to collect data on a server the Trump campaign used, ostensibly to look into ties by Trump associates with two Russian banks, although no wrongdoing was established. Given the sieve-like nature of the national security apparatus on the alleged Trump-Russia connection, one can be confident that no other wrongdoing was discovered either, otherwise it would be on the front page of every newspaper. Obama, and his allies in the media and on Capitol Hill, are more than likely out of ammunition, and they were firing blanks to begin with.

The sole casualty of this fake news investigation was Michael Flynn, whose fear of rampaging Democrats led him to mislead the vice president on a matter that was neither illegal nor improper. The fact that members of the Obama administration informed the president that Flynn had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador may be taken as confirmation that they were listening to Trump associate phone calls.

Furthermore, as Flynn was not one of three Trump associates the FBI and Justice Department initially suspected either of wrongdoing or of being a foreign agent, one may presume that the surveillance cast a wider net than the original affidavit would have suggested.


Was the Deep State Working to Benefit Hillary?


The key question that will have to be answered is: who and what were the intelligence services of the United States listening to and reading? Did the FBI and the Justice Department manipulate the FISA process to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign, and did they directly or indirectly assist the Clinton campaign? Watergate merely involved hiring a few criminals to bug the opposition, then attempting to cover up their crime. If true, the Obama administration’s actions would involve criminalizing large sections of the executive branch into an East German-style police state.

As it is highly unlikely that the 11 federal judges of the FISA court met en banc—i.e., all together—to review the DOJ surveillance request, did the administration use the same judge who had rejected the first request for the second one? Trump was named in some capacity in the first request, which was rejected. It is entirely possible that the second request, which did not include Trump’s name, was made to a different judge, who may have been ignorant of its relation to Trump’s campaign. This is conjecture, but given the past behavior of the Obama administration, they may have judge-shopped their request and lied by omission.
News reports indicate the existence of “a multi-agency working group to coordinate [the Trump-Russia] investigations across the government.” Why? If nothing stays a secret for more than 24 hours, and no evidence of wrongdoing has come to light, what were or are all these agencies working on?

It is a matter of public record that in his final days, Obama relaxed longstanding National Security Agency rules so intelligence could be widely shared within the government before applying privacy protections. What was the purpose of this order if not to assist government employees hostile to the incoming administration in leaking material that portrayed Trump in a negative light?


The Obama Administration’s Record Is Sketchy


Efforts by White House Counsel Donald McGahn to obtain investigative documents related to the FISA court have met howls that he is interfering in an ongoing investigation, yet who and what exactly are the FBI and DOJ investigating? One suspects they are keeping the investigation alive because its existence perpetuates the myth of Trump’s wrongdoing. They didn’t find anything, and admitting it would be severely embarrassing; and they don’t want to reveal what they did or how they did it.

Only Congress has the ability to subpoena the relevant testimony and materials, but one shouldn’t be surprised if a parade of Fifth Amendment-takers, “I don’t recall”-ers, missing memos, and shredded hard drives appear, for that is the modus operandi of Obama administration officials in all their other scandals.
Indeed, the Obama administration had a history of improperly using FISA-authorized surveillance on their domestic political enemies. As reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2015, “NSA’s targeting of Israeli leaders swept up the content of private conversations with U.S. lawmakers… wary of a paper trail stemming from a request, the White House let the NSA decide what to share and what to withhold, officials said. ‘We didn’t say, ‘Do it,’ a senior U.S. official said. We didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it.’”

The Obama administration also concocted a ludicrous excuse to conduct surveillance on Fox News’ James Rosen, whom it named as a “criminal co-conspirator” in an effort to track down leaks related to North Korean nuclear tests. The Obama DOJ went beyond investigating Rosen’s professional work and searched his personal emails.

Perhaps the DOJ believed Rosen was using alternative email addresses for business, in the same manner that Secretary of State Clinton, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson did to evade Freedom of Information requests, to conceal questionable activity. Obama was proven to have lied about not knowing that Clinton used a personal email, when records show he replied to it. Obama also had a private email address, which he used for official business.


This Is Going to Be Nuts


The Obama DOJ also surveilled reporters at the Associated Press in an effort the New York Times called “chilling.” The DOJ went “through The A.P.’s records for months. The dragnet covered work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 people at one of the oldest and most reputable news organizations.”

It should be remembered that alleged Russian involvement in the campaign centered around leaking emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary campaign. Did the DOJ exercise the same “chilling zeal” with the Trump campaign as they displayed with leaks given to Fox News and the AP?

Lynch met secretly with Bill Clinton at the same time Hillary Clinton was being investigated by the FBI. Comey, whatever he said in public notwithstanding, managed to take an excellent case of criminal wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton on a wide range of offenses, and either bungle or bury it.

While there is no smoking gun thus far, the cover of secrecy cannot hold against an enflamed administration armed with congressional subpoenas. The press can refuse to connect the dots and ignore the mountain of evidence piling up, but the truth will come out. The Russia-Trump scandal will likely be revealed as an ugly, possibly illegal, fabrication conducted by the “bad or sick guy” Obama, who was so obsessed with “punishing his enemies” that he violated every norm of decency that a democracy depends on to survive.

The author has worked on numerous statewide political campaigns in Virginia, South Dakota and Washington, D.C. He currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area.

20 comments:

  1. This all started with an enabled corrupt pathological liar and grossly incompetent Hillary Clinton, a repugnant inept Obama, a dishonest press, a hated establishment, a totally out of control domestic intelligence apparatus, Neocon wars and on and o and on...

    What could possibly go wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perhaps what the world needs now is a good old fashioned war between North Korea and Malaysia. Who knows, this might lead the Chinese to finally do something about the psychotic Kim.

    Latest in North Korea-Malaysia meltdown: Hostage taking?
    POSTED AT 9:41 PM ON MARCH 7, 2017 BY ED MORRISSEY

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/07/latest-in-north-korea-malaysia-meltdown-hostage-taking/

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As for the USA we did wonderfully during and after World War II, what with the Marshal Plan, allowing the Japanese to rebuild and live in peace, NATO etc and we should all be proud of it, but somewhere along the line maybe we inherited and grew too much responsibility.

      Scoundrels of all types have gotten a grip from the o so easy scoundreling and hopefully The Donald can tone it back a bit.

      Then these days there's the moslem problem....

      grrrr....

      Thankfully life goes on pretty much as normal out here in the boondocks.

      Delete
  4. Who Or What To Believe ?

    A lucidly murky attempt:

    If We Are Not Just Animals, What Are We?
    The Stone
    Roger Scruton
    THE STONE MARCH 6, 2017

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/opinion/if-we-are-not-just-animals-what-are-we.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

    A for tasking/challenge
    C+ for effort, and that's generous
    D for coherent content
    Pass/Fail - Pass, by a cat's whisker

    Professor Bob

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm settling in to Celebrate A Day Without Women.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hemingway once titled a series of some of his short stories MEN WITHOUT WOMEN.

    Pretty grim, but that was long ago, during conditions radically other than ours today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trudeau is obviously an idiot, but his wife might have something to say:

      Trudeau wife wants to celebrate MEN on Women's Day...

      Firestorm....DRUDGE


      ;)

      Delete
  7. To hell with Women's Day.

    I can't last a day without Quirk.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me either.

      Or is it me neither ?

      Delete
    2. You whores stay away from my man !

      Delete
    3. Quirk's with me and I ain't lettin' him go, ever.

      Or is it never ?

      Delete
    4. I'm filing divorce.

      Delete
  8. .

    From the WaPO...

    Hawaii plans to sue to block new Trump travel ban

    The action would be the first formal challenge to the president’s new executive order. Lawyers for the state told a judge in a court filing they want to ask for a temporary restraining order on the directive...


    From the Maui Marauder...

    Haole Doug, noted misogynist, lava tube hermit, and driftwood hoarder has announced he will be leading a massive rally of other driftwood hoarder's in support of Trump's Muslim Ban. When asked about his protest plans, Doug merely muttered "Chicken shawarma is garbage!" When asked a follow-up question, Doug was about to respond when he spotted a large piece of driftwood down the beach and ran off.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doug ran off towards Chin Chin, who was waving to him lustily down the beach, on which Quirk sat with pail and spoon.

      Then Doug and Chin Chin ran off together.

      Delete
    2. And YOU owe ME a hundred bucks for misusing and plagiarizing MY lava tube meme.

      Delete
  9. ,

    I would argue there is substantial difference (the basis of copyright claims) between 'lava tube inhabitant' and 'lava tube hermit'. We are perfectly willing to defend that distinction in court.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :o)

      One hundred bucks saves you your pro se lawyers fees and the risk inherent in a jury decision.

      Be reasonable.

      Delete
  10. I like this:

    "That was comedy and this is a Saint Vitus’ dance of the old Democratic Party.

    It is responding to the specter of its unimaginable enemy about to try to dismantle the tyrannies of the teachers’ unions, the climate-change frauds, the Democratic welfare-for-votes dispensary, the Obamacare monstrosity, the sanctuaries for the electoral harvest of illegal migrants, and the Wall Street fiscal massage parlor.

    Mr. Trump’s success in all these ambitions is far from assured.

    The Republican Senate majority is hostage to some vulnerable egos that were battered by the Trump campaign for nomination, including those of Senators Rubio, McCain, Graham, and Paul. Some of the abrasions of the past two years were painful, but presumably Republican senators can be appealed to on some materially sweetened version of the national and party interest."

    ReplyDelete